A suggestion for teachers

RE: FORD’S SEX ED CHANGES

Here is a proposal for Ontario teachers from a retired educator who has been “out of the business” for over 22 years. I understand your concern that the current government is determined to impose a sex education curriculum which will not adequately prepare young people to live in Ontario in 2018 and beyond.

The criticism of the 1998 curriculum, however, is not so much for what it teaches as it is for the topics which it omits. Since I don’t think any teacher could be disciplined for answering honestly any questions students ask, the challenge for teachers would seem to be that of getting students to ask the right questions. In my experience, students are pretty good at this anyway, but perhaps the teachers’ professional organizations could recommend to their members approaches to make sure that the right questions are asked.

It might be as direct as saying to a class: “You should be asking me about ...” In this way, students and teachers could be enlisted in a conspiracy to help students discover what it is that the government doesn’t want them to know.

Perhaps this attitude might even lead to students, many of whom will soon be voters, challenging other things being done by this dangerously undemocratic government.

Mel Tuck, Dundas